Philly Tech Week 2019

OMAR GRANT DIRECTOR, CREATIVE – NEW YORK As Director, Creative, New York for Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), Omar Grant is responsible for discovering, signing and fostering the growth of songwriters and producers in the R&B, hip-hop and gospel genres. In addition, Grant oversees showcases, workshops and panels aimed at educating and supporting the creative community. He reports directly to BMI Vice President, Creative, Atlanta, Catherine Brewton. Since joining BMI in 2017, Grant has been instrumental in signing and fostering the growth of decorated songwriters and producers in the R&B, hip-hop and gospel genres, such as 2019 GRAMMY-Award winning producer Ayo, Ari Lennox, Pi’erre Bourne, TrifeDrew, Lil TJay, Maddox Grayson, and STREETRUNNER. Grant has also spearheaded many of BMI’s signature programs including “How I Wrote That Song®” surrounding the 2018 GRAMMY Awards, “Songwriters Social Club”, and the hip-hop “Know Them Now” series where he was responsible for bringing the primarily Atlanta-based showcase to New York City. Before coming to BMI, Grant worked at BET Networks where he was the director of BET’s Music Matters, a broadcast and digital platform that promotes both emerging and well-established talent through original programming, monthly events and nationwide tours. Grant was responsible for scouting talent, managing all live events and the supervision of new marketing strategies and releases. Prior to BET Networks, he worked at AOL in Television Production where he developed, managed and executed creative show concepts for on-air programming. Grant received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Management and Operations from Nyack College.

Will Walsh leads a team of UX professionals in Vanguard’s International division and is responsible for creating global digital experiences for financial advisors and institutions that balance the cultural nuances and maintains brand equity.

Before joining Vanguard, Will led UX for Sidecar, a local Philly startup and spent 10 years at Comcast as a UX Director where he helped shape the future of the TV experience and transform the frontline experience for techs and agents.

There is no single path a user takes and it’s up to us to guide and delight them at every juncture.

Mr. Brian Orrell has more than 25 years of technology consulting experience in a variety of industries and technologies. His emphasis is on the delivery of enterprise solutions. His areas of expertise include designing, developing and maintaining distributed systems, mobility, cloud platforms and artificial intelligence.

Mr. Orrell has led large-scale development engagements for large utility companies, airlines, educational organizations, shipping companies and non-profit organizations. His technical experience has led to multiple speaking engagements regarding the management of large-scale development projects and custom software development. Mr. Orrell has also taught courses on development methodology, design and systems thinking.

Mr. Orrell has served at BSG Alliance IT and has served in leadership positions at Southwest Airlines, Tactica Technology Group and Hitachi Consulting. His leadership experience includes managing teams to deliver: online bill pay services for a large utility; a scheduling and tracking system for a large airline; an online educational testing system for states; a supply-chain tracking and routing system for one of the largest logistics companies in the world.

In his role as CTO at Pariveda Solutions, he focuses on the emerging technologies that will provide strategic value for Pariveda and its clients.

Jeanine Heck serves as Vice President of AI Product in the Technology Product & experience (TPX) organization of Comcast Cable. In this role, Jeanine works closely with research & engineering to bring artificial intelligence into Xfinity products. She was the founding product manager for the X1 voice remote, and in her twelve years at Comcast, has worked on a variety of initiatives across all consumer product areas, including video, home security and customer support.

Christopher Molaro is a 2010 graduate of USMA where he graduated with a degree in Engineering Management and commissioned as a Field Artillery Officer. He deployed with the First Cavalry Division as a platoon leader to Iraq in 2011 and was awarded a Bronze Star. In 2017 he earned his Masters in Business Administration from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania. He is now the founder and CEO of NeuroFlow, a digital mental health technology company used in hundreds of clinics and hospitals that was recently named a top mental health company by MedTech Boston and most innovative technology by the 2018 Psych Congress. He resides in Philadelphia with his wife, Erica.

Alex leads the Grubhub big data infrastructure and platform teams. He has over 10 years of experience building and scaling big data and machine learning platforms. Prior to joining Grubhub, he worked as principal architect for Intelligent Mining where he worked on a number of big data and machine learning projects. Alex is a subject matter expert of all things data at Grubhub and he's passionate about building data solutions that help the business excel.

Stephen Babcock is the Assistant Editor for Technical.ly. Stephen Babcock began reporting for Technical.ly in Baltimore in 2014. A graduate of Northeastern University, he moved to Baltimore following stints in New Orleans and Rio Arriba County, New Mexico. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Baltimore Fishbowl, NOLA Defender, NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune and the Rio Grande Sun.

Sean Darras is a passionate impact entrepreneur who has been involved with numerous ventures throughout his career. His most recent venture, LUXTECH, was named Philadelphia’s 7th fastest growing company. Sean graduated from the University of Delaware where he studied business and engineering.